UT classes moving online due to coronavirus

Classes at the University of Tennessee are being temporarily suspended and moved online in response to COVID-19, the respiratory illness caused by the new coronavirus.

UT Chattanooga will suspend in-person classes until March 30, while UT Knoxville and UT Martin will suspend in-person classes until April 3. Beginning March 23, UT Health Science Center will offer all face-to-face lecture classes remotely until further notice. Clinical rotations in hospitals will continue as usual, a press release said.

University of Tennessee Interim President Randy Boyd—in consultation with chancellors at UT Knoxville, UT Chattanooga, UT Martin, and the UT Health Science Center—announced the temporary suspension of all in-person classes in a press release on Wednesday. It’s being called a proactive measure.

There are no reports of active confirmed cases involving COVID-19 on any University of Tennessee campus, but there are confirmed cases in Tennessee.

“Our top priority is the health and safety of our students,” Boyd said in the press release. “We are taking this preventative measure with all of our campuses that provide face-to-face instruction out of an abundance of caution.”

Each campus will be sending out specific communications to their faculty, students, and staff regarding the details of the suspension and any online accommodations that will be made, the press release said.

“While we do not want to create undue anxiety on our campuses, we firmly believe that suspending our in-person classes is a prudent and important measure to take given the current COVID-19 situation,” Boyd said.

The UT System recently announced a comprehensive resource guide that provides information and resources surrounding COVID-19:  tennessee.edu/coronavirus/.

In December 2019, the global health care community identified a new respiratory virus that originated in Wuhan City, Hubei Province, China, and has since been labeled 2019 Novel Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19, according to the World Health Organization—previously it was referred to as 2019-nCoV). Spread of coronavirus is correlated with circumstances of close and sustained contact with others who are infected.